


Changes

by TeekiJane



Series: The Boys of Summer [5]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeekiJane/pseuds/TeekiJane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mallory heads home from her first year at college and, while she's not going to show it, there are a few surprises waiting for her....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

_And these children who spit on you_  
 _As they try to change their worlds_  
 _Are immune to your consultations_  
 _They’re quite aware of what they’re going through_  
David Bowie, Changes

**Mallory**

I woke up my first morning after my freshman year of college to the sound of Byron’s girlfriend singing. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Haley, I really do. I’ve known her for years and she’s grown from a bright, sociable kid to a lovely young woman. But I had had classes at nine am every week day for the past semester and all through May term. All I wanted on my first day home was to sleep in. 

I’ve been living away from home for quite a while now—more than seven years. There are all those clichés about coming home, you know: home is where the heart is, there’s no place like home. Etc., etc. But really, when you’re an adult used to a certain set of circumstances, coming home is quite frankly awful. 

Going to boarding school was absolutely amazing. I was free to be who I was without any preconceived notions, and I was also free to change who I was without anyone judging me. But college has been even more liberating, simply because we’re all adults and for the most part, the only rules we have to follow are the laws of the land and the rules of society. I have no curfew and I can do whatever I want within my dorm room as long as it doesn’t get me arrested or kicked out of school. 

Home is in no way like that. I don’t think my parents realize that I had my eighteenth birthday over a year ago. While I have no intention of smoking pot or drinking in my bedroom—I don’t do drugs and I’m not really into the drinking scene, though I’ve been known to have a beer or two—it would be nice for my parents to respect my privacy and adulthood. I just don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon. 

And I guess if I think about it, living with the Pikes is similar in some ways to living in a college dorm. There are a lot of people around, some of whom are very loud and/or very annoying. There’s no such thing as quiet time at the Pikes unless it’s between 1 am and 6 am, and even that’s not a guarantee. 

So when Haley started singing, I just gave up on sleep. I half-way got dressed—basically, I put some undergarments on under my pajamas and made sure I was dressed at least as well as the people in my 9 am classes—and headed down to the kitchen. 

I stopped in the doorway and looked at everyone. It was morning on a Saturday, so some family members were still sleeping and others were already gone for the day. Claire was frying some eggs in a frying pan. She’d pulled her hair up into a pony tail on the top of her head and had obviously slept in it that way from the way it was falling down. Adam was sitting on the counter, eating a sandwich of some variety. He was dressed for the day and looked like he was about to jump off the counter and head off to some activity or another. 

Nick was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. He too was dressed, but I doubted he was going anywhere. He hadn’t said two words to me since I came home, but I’ve already heard from Claire that she thinks he’s going to be the Pike family member to always live with Mom and Dad—the creepy relative who lives in the basement. 

The only other people in the kitchen were Jordan and Haley. She was obviously dressed, as she’d come from down the block. Her hair, which she’d always worn short, was longer than I remembered and she’d pulled most of it into a ponytail, with the loose pieces on the side tucked behind her ears. She was standing so that she was mostly turned away from me, tucking dishes into the dishwasher, and she was still singing. I didn’t recognize the song, but obviously Claire did, as she was humming along here and there. 

Jordan was sitting on another part of the counter. He wasn’t eating—he was watching Haley. And I don’t just mean watching; I mean out and out staring. It was almost creepy, but at the same time, I didn’t really blame him. She was really belting it out and the song was beautiful. 

“Will they miss me when I’m gone?” Haley finished up the song and closed the dishwasher. Jordan jumped off the counter and went to her. She flashed him a smile and he kissed the top of her head. 

And that’s when I got horribly confused. 

Claire, who had been eating her eggs straight from the pan with her fingers, turned around to say something to Jordan and spotted me in the doorway. “Mally!” she shouted. 

I smiled faintly at her. “Morning, everyone,” I called casually to the room as a whole. One skill I’ve acquired in all my years at school is not showing surprise outwardly. I turned to Haley specifically. “That was beautiful. I didn’t know you had such a nice voice. I could hear you from my bedroom.” 

She instantly looked guilty. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” she asked remorsefully. 

I shook my head. “No, I was already awake,” I lied. 

I might be good at faking casual, but apparently I am a terrible liar. “That’s a yes,” Jordan said with a smirk. He grabbed Haley’s hand and pulled her toward him and away from the conversation. “We’re going for a bike ride if Mom and Dad ask,” he said generically. “Adam, you want to come join us?” 

Adam had finished his sandwich and was now eating a pickle. Sometimes, I swear my brothers were garbage disposals in a past life. “No thanks,” he called with his mouth full, “Robby, Shane, Scott and I are playing two on two down at the elementary school. I’m actually just waiting for them to come pick me up. Surprise, surprise, they’re late.” Just then a car horn honked on the street. Adam looked at his watch and faked being shocked. “Well, only ten minutes late. That’s a record in being on time for Robby. Catch you guys later, okay?” He, Jordan and Haley all left the room together, Haley and Jordan still holding hands. 

Claire left her still-hot pan in the sink. “I’m going to take a shower while the bathroom’s free,” she called. “I’ll wash my dishes when I get back.” 

That left me alone with Nick, who was still very slowly eating his cereal. I saw that he’d left out the milk and a box of Shredded Wheat, so I grabbed a bowl and joined him. “What’s the deal with Haley?” I asked as poured cereal into my bowl. 

Nick may not be the most social person in the world, but you can have a conversation with him—if you start it. “What do you mean?” he asked. 

I poured some milk. “You know what I mean. Her and Jordan, Nick.” 

He looked at me funny. “What’s to tell? They’ve been going out since spring break.” 

“But….” I trailed off for a moment as Nick took another bite. “What about her and Byron?” 

For a moment, I thought Nick was going to laugh, but he caught himself. “Oh,” he said, looking surprised, “He didn’t tell you yet.” 

Sometimes, Nick is so cryptic it’s not even funny. “Tell me what?” I asked. 

I wasn’t sure exactly what the look on his face was. I think part of it was a feeling of having said too much. “Well, it’s not my story to tell. Let’s just say that Byron was not dating Haley. He would have never dated Haley.” 

What the hell? Any time I’d seen Byron in the last three years, Haley hadn’t been far away. Either the two of them were together, or he had just come from Haley’s, or he was going to Haley’s. I rarely saw him with anyone _but_ Haley. 

An image began to form in my mind. I remembered Mom talking about how the boys at school were teasing Byron and calling him names in the locker room. I remembered being home last year when Adam and Jordan left for the prom and Byron sat up in his room with a book. I remembered Adam and Jordan commenting on the “hotness” of some photos of my friends getting ready to go to a dance, while Byron just said they seemed nice. “Oh,” I said in sudden understanding. 

Nick nodded. “Yup. But if he asks, you didn’t find out from me. There’s about 30 copies of an old newspaper over there; read that and then you ‘accidentally’ found out, okay?” His cereal had turned to mush and it looked like he’d given up on it; he dumped the leftovers into the sink and added his bowl to the dishwasher. Without saying goodbye, he ran upstairs. 

I left my cereal on the table and put the milk away before it soured. While I was up, I grabbed a newspaper from the stack Nick had indicated and started turning the pages. Nick was right; there were at least ten copies of the same paper in the stack. I returned to my seat, still looking for the article that Nick seemed to think would clear things up. 

Finally I found it, and it confirmed the ‘ah-ha’ moment I’d had earlier. The picture showed two boys—one of whom could only have been Byron—and the accompanying text was all about how Byron had invited a boy to the prom. The surprise, I think, was the identity of the other boy. 

Jeff Schafer was the younger brother of an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen or spoken to his sister Dawn much since I’d gone off to boarding school, because she and Jeff lived in California and we were just never around at the same time. We used to belong to a club back in the day and whoever was around and free got together about once a month, but Dawn hadn’t come visit Connecticut since around the times the get-togethers started. I’d heard something about a giant fight with her stepsister, who’s also a friend of mine. I thought about calling Jeff’s stepsister and asking her about it, but I didn’t. I wanted to talk to Byron first. 

And I got that opportunity sooner than I expected. As I was reading the article, Byron appeared in the kitchen, quietly enough that I didn’t notice him. He was wearing his pajama bottoms and not much else, and his eyes were half open. He grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and stuffed some in his mouth. While he chewed on that, he popped some bread in the toaster. 

Byron turned to get some peanut butter and spotted me reading the newspaper. He blushed down to the roots of his hair but didn’t say a word. I folded the paper—I’d finished the article and didn’t want to embarrass him any more than necessary. “Morning, Byron,” I said as he poured himself some orange juice. 

His face twitched, and I couldn’t tell if he was about to say something or if he was trying not to cry. Maybe a little of each. Just then, his toast popped up and he used that as an excuse to drop eye contact and turn around. Finally, he brought his food and juice to the table and sat across from me. After he spent a moment futzing with his plate, he looked up at me. “So…” he began, fading out. 

I put him out of his misery. “I read the article,” I said, stating the obvious. 

Byron made a sour-lemon face. “I hate that article,” he said, and then took an angry bite of his peanut butter toast. 

I thought about that while he took a few more bites. The article mostly quoted Adam and Jeff. Haley was also in there, but it looked to me like she’d made a single statement and then run like hell. Byron obviously hadn’t spoken to the reporter at all. “What’s a matter with it?” 

He wrinkled his nose. “Publicity,” he sighed and took another bite. “A lot of people I’ve never spoken to in my life have come over to talk to me since it came out. Most people have been nice, but not everyone.” 

I eyed him critically. One thing that you need to know about Byron is that he claims to be an introvert and to prefer to be alone. But when he does decide to be social, he knows just what to say and makes friends easily. I personally think that he just rejects others before they reject him, and that’s really why he spends so much time alone. “So what kind of ‘not so nice’ have you encountered?” I asked. 

Byron returned the critical eye. “Nothing too bad…yet. Just some people who want to quote the Bible at me, mostly.” 

I laughed. “I’ve found that you can never argue with the Bible. Just nod and walk away.” 

“Yeah, that’s about right.” 

He had finished his breakfast already and he took his plate and my bowl over to the sink. I was afraid he’d leave the room before I was done talking with him, so I went ahead and blurted out my other thought. “I’m proud of you, you know.” 

Byron turned around. “What for?” he asked suspiciously. 

“For being so brave about this. For coming out so publicly.” He snorted. “No, really. What if some younger guy reads that article and feels more secure about who he is because of it?” 

“So I’m a role model,” he said sarcastically. He slammed the dishwasher shut, harder than I think he meant to do, and the fight went out of him with it. “I don’t look at it that way,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I’m brave. Mal, it took me some four years to accept who I am and another four years to tell a single other person. Doesn’t sound like a brave person to me; sounds like a chicken shit.” 

I looked him over. “Hey, little brother,” I said, squeezing his shoulder, “Think about this for a second: Bravery isn’t the lack of fear. It’s being afraid and doing something anyway.” 

Byron’s lips twitched into a small smile. “What book did you steal that quote from?” he asked. 

I laughed. “Probably a whole bunch of them.” 

“You took psychology last term, didn’t you?” I blushed. He was right. “Anyway, I don’t think it matters much. I am gay. I have always been gay. I will always be gay. It doesn’t matter if people know or not, but it’s easier now that I have some people on my side.” 

I smiled at the resolve. There was no going back into the closet for my brother. “So, how was prom?” 

A dreamy look passed over his face for a moment. “It was great. Jeff apparently loves to dance. He didn’t want to sit down at all.” 

“He probably just wanted to spend as much time as possible with you.” 

Byron gave a proper smile at that one. “He’s graduating today and flying in tomorrow.” 

The shower had stopped upstairs and I headed for the doorway, determined to be the next one in the bathroom. “Summer of romance for you this year?” 

He gave a huge grin now. “Stranger things have happened."


End file.
